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Nadella As Microsoft CEO - A Slap in The Face For Indian System
Nadella As Microsoft CEO - A Slap in The Face For Indian System
Perhaps this comes from our caste system, where castes try and keep others out, but we are stuck with this system of exclusion. Our system encourages talkers rather than doers.We think this makes us argumentative and democratic, but what this actually makes us is obstructionist rather than problem solvers. Our politics is about name-calling and running others down, not about doing something yourself. A Narasimha Rao and a Vajpayee who achieved something are voted out; a UPA-1 which did little beyond distributing taxpayers resources is voted in. This is one reason why we celebrate the rare achievers so highly: TN Seshan, who armed the Election Commission with real teeth, Vinod Rai, who made CAG a household name, and E Sreedharan, the former boss of the Delhi Metro. And yet, we find the political class carping about them and calling them dictators. This is also the reason why we prefer autocratic rulers rather than democratic ones: we know we talk more than we act. To get things done, we prefer an autocrat to rule over us rather than exercise self-discipline as democrats. All our successful political parties are one-person shows. The latest heading in that direction is BJP which was all talk and no achievement for 10 years in opposition till Narendra Modi came along and was lauded for being a doer. If leaders emerge from our system, its due to a historical accident. As Ramchandra Guha points out in his book Patriots and Partisans, if Lal Bahadur Shastri had lived five more years, Indira Gandhi would not have been PM and Sonia Gandhi would still be a housewife. We are risk-avoiders rather than risk takers. This is why we prescribe endless paperwork and bureaucracy for simple things like opening a bank account or buying a mobile phone connection. A terrorist would have used an untraceable mobile number after which every Indian buying a mobile will be put through hoops to prove he is a bonafide consumer. This does not catch any terrorist, but the idea is for officials to avoid the risk that fingers will be pointed at you saying you did nothing to prevent terrorism. So orders will be issued to tighten the system and make things worse for everybody. A scam will happen somewhere. Suddenly files stop moving in every ministry. Forest clearances will take ages or never happen. The risk of being seen as doing something wrong is great. And so the buck is passed to someone else in the system. Sonia and Rahul want to be seen as do-gooders. So the dirty work of reform will be handed over to Manmohan Singh who is another risk-avoider. He will do nothing and allow the A Rajas to loot the exchequer rather than do his job. Doing nothing is safer than asking tough questions of his babus or ministers. The BJP and other opposition leaders know that populist laws like the Food Security and Land Acquisition laws will damage the fiscal balance. But they too avoid risks by keeping quiet when wrong laws are passed. As a people, we are risk-avoiders as well. We know the IITs and IIMs are the way to big jobs. So when our kids want to become artists or cricketers, we tell them to forget it and study for IIT-JEE
when our kids want to become artists or cricketers, we tell them to forget it and study for IIT-JEE or CAT, never mind your own passion. Our engineers stop being engineers and start coding; they then opt for doing an MBA and become lousy man managers. Meanwhile, our engineering companies are starved of engineers. We are simply unable to tolerate success. If Modi talks about a Gujarat model, everybody has to bring it down. If Rahul claims his governments biggest achievement is the RTI, everyone will belittle it. If Chidambaram claims high growth as UPAs success, the Left will say this growth is not helping the poor. If we say poverty has reduced, others will say it hasnt. If it has, our definition of poverty must be wrong. We celebrate mediocrity, rather than excellence. Our system kills initiative rather than engender it. We want pliable yes-men and non-achievers around us, not non-conformists and people with ideas of their own. Our successes are more the result of accident than real effort. The 1991 external bankruptcy forced us to reform and liberalise. Manmohan Singhs reformism ended with that accident. Another accident made him PM in 2004, but he did little to use this chance to reform further. We are paying the price for his risk-aversion. A Satya Nadella, who is from Manipal , would never have made it big in India since he is not from the IITs. But even IITians dont flower much in an Indian corporate or academic environment; they leave India and prefer working with foreign firms. If Satya Nadella had remained in India, he would probably be working as a coder in Infosys or TCS. Earning a high salary no doubt, but an unlikely candidate for CEO.